Arganaut is checking it out.
He and his wife dropped WoW last week, and then I left there as well.

He sent me some screenshots of the UI which looks nice and clean.
Guildwars also runs on a lesser computer and video card too, which is why he chose it.
We have tried out so many games together this past year, I think I shall wait a few months or less and see if he gets tired of it too. rofl

The thing I found most interesting about it is there is no monthly fee to play. I haven't tried it, don't have time for more than one game, but if you really can purchase the game then play for free it's a definite plus. Was just curious if anyone had actually played it to see if the game is as good as the graphics. I'll be anxious to get a report from Arganaut.

Guild Wars absolutely rocks, especially for a guy like me who does not have a lot of time to sit down and MMORPG these days. The gameplay value in terms of player vs environment content is phenomenal even if you never play it forever with no monthly fee. It is comparable or bests other first-person shooter games like half-life. The graphics are stunning and make the dated EQ graphics semi-painful to go back and look at. I got into GW because of:

1) No monthly fee

2) Emphasis on SKILL over time-spent playing and farming uber gear

3) Player friendly transportation and character death design. Sayonara lost xp and corpse runs.

4) My love of player vs player combat in lieu of computer AI opponents

However, GW is not for people who like to spend countless hours farming drops to get that +18 axe of noobslaying to upgrade the +17 axe. GW is designed where for each venture out into the wild (or into a PvP arena) you "mem" 8 skills/spells from a large assortment of accumulated skills, kinda like making a Magic CCG deck from a larger assortment of collected cards. Hard core players will simply have a larger assortment of skills (unlocked/gained from difficult quests) than a more casual player, and will enjoy a larger breadth of play experience with that toon, but will not be necessarily more uber in terms of combat power.

Thus, the variety in gear pales in comparison to EQ, and there are no inv slots for rings, earrings, etc. But I don't really find this that big a deal, but that's just me.

Also, all areas outside city zones are instanced for your party, which can make things lonely out in the wild, but also avoids the headache of trains and camp disputes, which makes the burden to ArenaNet's customer service MINIMAL, enabling no monthly fee. One downside to no monthly fee is that a lot of stupid and rude kids play, so you need to ignore them and seek out other CN-grade players over time in pick-up groups or, in my case, several real-life friends to group with in-game.

I strongly recommend this game, especially if you want to match wits head to head with other players from time to time. I would be thrilled if enough fine CN folk dabbled in GW on the side to form Celestial Navigators in GW! This sounds cheesy, but to me CN is about the *people* irrespective of the MMORPG software played.

BB

P.S. One of my GW toons is Blackbane Cutfixer. If you put him on friends list, any one of my other toons will appear as "friend online" if I'm on as a different character! Would love to get a "hello!"

I played GW for a few weeks. Here are my pros, and Cons. ( from the PvE point of view, the other half of the game.)

PROS: GW is full of amazing graphics. The character detail is very nice, but the environmental effects are astonishing. If you like exploring, this game is right up your alley. The instanced zones are a blast. The gear, spells and character build open up for very original styles of play. I found I spent more time trying to find the perfect combo for the most DPS, and had a lot of fun figuring it out because of the combat build format. I didn’t see one server based issue or any fatal crashes.

CONS: It is lacking trade skills. I found the PvE to be a fast paced Hack and Slash game, often lacking depth and much challenge. Even a large fight, with many mobs last roughly 2min tops. In less than 2 weeks, I had two level 14s, and explored more than half of the world. When I was playing, you couldn’t form your own group. I was being Auto grouped with all melees at times.

To me, GW is a great mix of Magic the Gathering and a fast paced Hack-n-slash game.
On the same note, I felt like it was just lacking “in combat” strats, and could use a little more global depth.